


Seeds of Doubt

by Serriya (Keolah)



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Oz - L. Frank Baum
Genre: Alternate Universe, Drama, Elves, Flying Monkeys, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 1998-01-01
Updated: 1998-01-01
Packaged: 2017-11-14 04:12:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/511176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keolah/pseuds/Serriya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The twins Helga and Hilda come to a world inhabited by peaceful flying monkeys, and confront an old foe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Seeds of Doubt

"I'm not sure what I can say about this world," sighed Helga. "I've never seen it's like before."

Her twin sister Hilda did not respond. The Elkandu's blue eyes were darting across the barren wasteland, as if looking for signs of movement in the unearthly orange foliage. Hilda lifted her right hand, touching the wind. Here, in this dry chaparral, Hilda's wind magic was the stronger, though Helga's own water magic was usually its equal.

"What do you sense, Hilda?"

"I'm not sure. This world is interfering with my senses. Were this home, I would know the kinds and purposes of all beings within a day's ride. Something about that patch of shrubs," Hilda pointed.

Helga squinted into the twin suns, trying to see what her sister was talking about. "I don't see anything." She cautiously approached the clump of bushes.

There came a sudden flurry of feathers, and a dozen blurs of winged creatures took to flight. One remained, its wing broken and thus unable to fly. It appeared to be a cross between a bird and some sort of humanoid, perhaps a small ariel. But a closer inspection revealed that it was actually a flying monkey with gray fur.

"What is this being, Hilda?"

"Zephyl," replied her sister promptly. "We have them at home, but they usually keep to the forest. What is he doing here, I wonder?"

"He? How can you tell?"

Hilda gestured to the wings. "The feathers are gold. Females have silver feathers."

The zephyl made a sound somewhere between a squeak and a word. Hilda's pointed ears pricked up, listening. Although the twins were only a quarter elven, they had inherited small elvish ears.

Hilda turned to her sister. "I've identified this world's dialect. I'm going to cast a spell on us so that we understand this language as our own and so that our own language sounds like this dialect."

Helga nodded her acquiescence as her sister worked her magic. When the zephyl spoke again, he was comprehensible.

"Please don't hurt me, benevolent beings. I'm only a poor wanderer zephyl. I never bothered any of your kind. I have never seen any of your kind. Please?"

"We're not going to hurt you, little zephyl," Helga smiled. "We're merely visitors, come to explore this region. I am called Helga, and this is my twin sister Hilda. What are you called?"

"Lament."

"What a depressing name," commented Helga. "I'll call you Mirth."

The brown zephyl smiled and fluttered his wings. "Mirth!" he squeaked, joyful. "No one has ever given me such a wonderful name. Thank you, Hilga."

"She's Helga," murmured Hilda. "I'm Hilda."

Mirth either didn't hear or ignored her. "I would take you to my Kormann, but I have been exiled."

"Why? What happened?" wondered Helga.

"You wouldn't know about Sedder, would you?" Mirth asked seriously.

The twins exchanged knowing glances. Sedder was a Dark Elkandu, who travelled the worlds only to enslave the people and glorify himself. He was a ruthless, merciless sorcerer, though tolerated--if barely--in the Elkandu society. "We know him," Helga told him.

"Sedder has offered my Kormann immortality, as well as powers beyond zephyl belief, if he serves him and banishes those who oppose him. I am one of those who dare to oppose such a power."

"I know what you're thinking, Helga, and I'll gladly help free these people from their bondage and send Sedder on his way again." As Elkandu, they couldn't punish--or even go directly against--another of their kind, but they could prevent one such as Sedder from grasping for too much power.

"Thank the suns!" exclaimed Mirth. "Landfolk on our side! Return, compatriots!" called the zephyl. "These walkers have agreed to help us."

The scattered zephyli flew back to where the twins were, squealing their cheers and praise.

* * *

"A direct confrontation would be futile," mused Hilda, ever the strategist. Though she was usually quiet and shy, underneath the docile shell she was warlike and an expert in battle planning. "We can't interfere with him directly anyway, so there's no use even considering it. Therefore, stealth and subterfuge are the way. I suggest an underground, where we can be within the city but undetected. We have to make public the truth about Sedder, so that his deceptions can be exposed. Graffiti alone won't be adequate; does Graymar have a journal?"

"Yes," Mirth told her. "It's called the Graymar Gazette."

"We have to gain control of that press," Hilda told them. "And print articles exposing Sedder's lies for what they are. What has he told you, anyway?"

"A whole slew of things amounting to the general belief that he's God."

"Horrible!" growled Helga. "He's abusing his power as an Elkandu. He must be stopped."

"Agreed. First, we have to subtly cause the people to question his Godhood," Hilda suggested. "Openly declaring the truth won't work. They'll just write it off as heretical nonsense and Sedder will shut down the press. That's no good. Subtlety is the key here. One article to start with, mildly suggestly that Sedder may not be what he seems to be. We can work up from there."

Mirth wrote the article himself, being a journalist before his exile. The editors of the Gazette were taken into the confidence of the underground, and, after much persuasion, were convinced. Thus the first seeds of doubt were planted in the populace of the city of Graymar.

"More questioning material," Hilda ordered. "The seed has to grow before the plant can bear fruit."

The zephyli of the underground followed her will unquestioningly, writing the articles zealously and printing them by the dozens. Soon they were able to move a step up: suggesting that Sedder may be lying to them.

"You're doing well, sister," Helga praised. "I suspect Sedder will be noticing the change in the populace soon."

"He already has," Hilda replied quietly, looking toward the door to the newspaper room.

Helga spun around. There stood a man in a sweeping dark grey cloak, glaring at the zephyl workers. Then he turned his hard gaze to the twins.

"Helga and Hilda." Sedder gave a grim smile. "I should have smelled your unique odor on those papers I read. What are you doing in Graymar?"

"Putting you out of business," Helga smirked. "We've sown enough doubt in your followers that nobody will believe you without first questioning you. These people may once have been your devoted servants, but now they will serve you no longer. Your rule now can only be rule by fear, for they will never again willingly follow you."

"I hate you," snarled Sedder, cloak whirling as he rapidly exitted the airy chamber.

"The feeling is mutual," muttered Helga. "How's that latest issue coming?"

"Right on schedule," Mirth told her, "and now directly speaking against Sedder and his self-proclaimed Godhood."

They strode out of the chamber, standing out on the balcony overlooking Lower Graymar. "I just hope he doesn't do anything precipitous," commented Helga.

At that instant, the newspaper building went up in a fiery explosion.

Mirth spread his wings and crooned mournfully. The twins' jaws dropped, even though such an occurance was not entirely unexpected. Helga emitted a stream of things she would like to do to Sedder, also reflecting upon his base ancestry and distasteful habits. Hilda recovered almost immediately, remaining outwardly passive.

Mirth silenced himself. "To the city square, my friends. And quickly!"

Following his winged lead, Hilda used her magic to let her and her sister fly to the square. They were ignorant to this particular Graymarian custom, but trusted Mirth's judgment.

Word spread of the deed to all corners of Graymar, and soon nearly every zephyl in the city was present. Sedder stood on one side of the square, while his three rivals took their places on the other.

"This heinous deed is the work of Sedder!" cried Mirth, opening the debate.

"The press was speaking heresy against me," returned Sedder, his voice magically amplified.

"The Gazette workers held nothing against you," answer Helga. "They were simple, honest people with families to care for-families that now will have no father, or mother, or uncle. Most of them didn't even know what was being published."

"I am the Elkandu Sedder. I am free to do what I choose."

"I am the Elkandu Helga. Should I choose to influence what is printed in an alien press, no Elkandu will begrudge me that right. But enslaving and slaying innocent people is completely uncalled for."

"Who of them is truly innocent?" demanded Sedder. "Which of them had never caused another pain, sorrow, anguish? How many lives were destroyed by the very zephyli who died?"

"What they did in life is irrelevant," Hilda spoke quietly. "No one deserves to die like that. Not even you, Sedder."

He faltered a couple times, before replying furiously, "I am Elkandu! Who dares to deny me my rights? Who dares to question my right to rule? Who dares to oppose me?"

"I do," Helga told him.

"And I," added Hilda.

"And me also," Mirth squealed.

Soon the sentiment was repeated by the zephyli of Graymar who had gathered to mourn the deaths of their fellows and determine blame in this case. Now it was clear to them that Sedder was the cause of this horror, and that his action was completely unjustified.

Sedder was not about to give up that easily. His fury stirred a storm of thunder, rain, lightning, fire, and earthquakes. It was decidedly the most spectacular temper-tantrum Graymar had ever seen.

"We will serve you no longer, Sedder," spoke the authoritative voice of the Kormann. "Begone from our fair city, and return no longer."

"Do not think this is the last time you've dealt with me," he addressed the twins, his impotent rage slowly dying down. "Should ours paths cross again, I will not be happy and may do something precipitous. If you value your continued well-being you will stay out of my way in the future."

The rogue Elkandu vacated the city by using his Elkandu magic to teleport himself back to the Nexus of Torn Elkandu. Now the zephyli cheered even as they mourned.

The Kormann of Graymar turned to the twins. "How can I thank you for exposing this fraud and liberating my fair city? What can I give you of equal worth to the freedom of my people?"

Helga smiled. "No thanks are necessary, O Kormann. We are glad to help anyone wherever help is needed. That this zephyl may be called Mirth, and for it to be true, is thanks enough for me."

As the twins prepared to leave this world, they learned that the zephyli of Graymar had named their twin suns Helga and Hilda, in honor of those who freed them.

"Truly, we are honored but undeserving," Helga commented almost modestly.

"Just shut up and get on with the spell," Hilda murmured.


End file.
